The present invention relates to continuous stationery assemblies, and more particularly, to a letter sheet continuous stationery assembly capable of generating or producing letter sheet documents which contain information, some printed and some typed, and which are useful, for example, for word processing applications. Such letter sheet documents are, for example, letters sent as sales promptional material.
In the past, such continuous stationery assemblies have been provided with longitudinal tear off perforations, have been printed with advertising material in the form of a typewritten letter and have had feed apertures provided in and along their side marginal edges. Subsequently, the continuous stationery assemblies are fed through a computer controlled printer and additional information, usually the name and address of the addressee as well as the date of the letter, is added. Sometimes additional information is also added in the body of the letter by the computer controlled printer. The position of the additional information is determined by the computer program, acting in conjunction with the feed pin continuous stationery assembly drive mechanism.
In further processing of the prior continuous stationery assembly, the side marginal portions containing the feed apertures are detached by means of longitudinal tear off perforations, and the continuous stationery assembly is divided into letter sheets. However, the letter sheets so generated or produced generally have shallow tabs formed at and along their side edges where the side marginal portions have been detached, and these shallow tabs constitute a serious drawback, from a commercial standpoint, to the use of such letter sheets because they make it obvious that the letter sheets were pre-printed and generated on a computer controlled printer.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved letter sheet continuous stationery assembly. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved letter sheet continuous stationery assembly in which all of the edges of the letter sheets are straight edges.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a letter sheet continuous stationery assembly comprises a first, front or top web and a second, backing or rear web. Both webs have side marginal feed apertures therein for feeding the webs, and thus the assembly, through a computer controlled printer and other forms handling equipment and have lines of adhesive along the side margins joining the two webs together. The front or top web, from which the letter sheets will be created, has a pair of longitudinal cuts therein, adjacent to its respective side margins, to define the side edges of each letter sheet to be formed from the front web. Transverse blocks are cut out of the front web to define the top and bottom edges of each letter sheet.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of producing an improved letter sheet continuous stationery assembly comprises: feeding a first, front web of a pair of webs from its respective manifold pack; cutting the first front web transversely at each letter length, i.e. adjacent to each of the manifold fold lines, to remove a transverse block from the front web so as to define the top and bottom edges of each letter sheet of the front web; feeding a second, backing web of the pair of webs from its respective manifold pack; applying adhesive to the side margins of one of the webs, i.e. on the face adjacent to the other web; collating and securing the front and backing webs together; and cutting the front web longitudinally, adjacent to each of its side margins, to define the side edges of each of the letter sheets.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, described with reference to the accompanying drawings.